In an instant Vernisset was on his feet, and the worthy Alain looked thunderstruck.  Madame de la Chanterie, on her part, gave Godefroid a look which petrified him; for the twofold expression on the face of the visitor had not escaped him.

“Monsieur is one of us,” she said to the young poet, with a sign towards Godefroid.

“Then you are a happy man, my dear fellow,” said Vernisset; “you are saved!  But, madame,” he added, turning to Madame de la Chanterie, “if all Paris had seen me, I should rejoice in it.  Nothing can ever mark my gratitude to you.  I am yours forever; I belong to you utterly.  Command me as you will and I obey.  I owe you my life, and it is yours.”

“Well, well, young man!” said the kind Alain, “then be wise, be virtuous,—­only, work; but do not attack religion in your books.  Moreover, remember that you owe a debt.”

And he handed him an envelope thick with the bank-notes he had counted out.  The tears were in Victor de Vernisset’s eyes; he kissed Madame de la Chanterie’s hand respectfully, and went away, after shaking hands with Monsieur Alain and Godefroid.

“You have not obeyed madame,” said the goodman Alain solemnly, with a sad expression on his face that Godefroid had never before seen there; “and that is a great wrong; if it happens again we must part.  This may seem hard to you after we had begun to give you our confidence.”

“My dear Alain,” said Madame de la Chanterie, “have the kindness for my sake to say no more about this piece of thoughtlessness.  We ought not to ask too much a new arrival, who has been spared great misfortunes and knows nothing of religion; and who, moreover, has only an excessive curiosity about our vocation, and does not yet believe in us.”

“Forgive me, madame,” said Godefroid; “I do desire, from this time forth, to be worthy of you.  I will submit to any trial you think necessary before initiating me into the secrets of your work; and if the Abbe de Veze will undertake to instruct me I will listen to him, soul and mind.”

These words made Madame de la Chanterie so happy that a faint color stole upon her cheeks.  She took Godefroid’s hand and pressed it, then she said, with strange emotion, “It is well.”

That evening, after dinner, visitors came in:  a vicar-general of the diocese of Paris, two canons, two former mayors of Paris, and one of the ladies who distributed the charities of Notre-Dame.  No cards were played; but the conversation was gay, without being vapid.

A visit which surprised Godefroid greatly was that of the Comtesse de Cinq-Cygne, one of the highest personages in aristocratic society, whose salon was inaccessible to the bourgeoisie and to parvenus.  The presence of this great lady in Madame de la Chanterie’s salon was sufficiently surprising; but the manner in which the two women met and treated each other seemed to Godefroid inexplicable; for it showed the closest intimacy and a constant intercourse which gave Madame de la Chanterie an added value in his eyes.  Madame de Cinq-Cygne was gracious and affectionate in manner to the four friends of her friend, and showed the utmost respect to Monsieur Nicolas.